BGR1P1: secret base over Fly. Quite easy choice for me; the J-Rap in Fly just doesn’t win over me. Also secret base has a bit sentimental value for me.
BGR1P2: oblivious over Beautiful World. I prefer Beautiful World in 2.0 (and I voted that one), and compared to oblivion, the latter is just better.
BGR1P3: Rain over Lion. One of hardest choice so far for me, but in the end I chose Rain. This version is just as good as Noriyuki Makihara’s version, which I like a lot.
BGR1P4: Puzzle over Juuni Genmukyouku. No specific reason.

It seems to me that save the occasional exceptions (really famous tracks from big anime), there is strong tendency for the ‘newer’ tracks to beat out the older stuff. Lets see how it plays out in the next couple of rounds.

There are a lot of possible reasons:
1. people tend to vote for songs from shows they know, and new shows tend to be the ones that stay in people’s mind for this group
2. more new shows incorporate music styles that are reflective of what’s popular today than older shows
3. people forget more stuff over time
4. age of participants

Fly is pretty fly but a JP track is naturally tough to come across with the language being a huge barrier for this genre. Secret Base is pretty okay I guess, it’s a huge hit for a reason.

Beautiful World is a bit of a wash with Oblivious in my opinion. Again language is also an issue for Beautiful World but it’s not as important? LOL. At any rate, my condolences to the youngest queen of jpop.

Rain is a nice piece given the work it is used for, but Lion is just a lot more of a song. Also the whole “insert token ENG in chorus” bit kind of backfires for me.

Juuni Genmukyouku is another token epic song, except this one is epic because it’s written that way, not because of the way the instrumentation came together. It’s not superficial. As much as I love Nino/Round Table I never liked Puzzle so there’s also that.

Secret Base over Fly because G-funk just doesn’t do it for me. Although it is interesting conceptually.
This version of Beautiful World is absolutely horrible. Just bad. The kind of track zakufan would put on a pedestal. Oblivion wins by default.
Lion’s use of the Amen break for the primary backing beat gives it a nice energy that never lets up; a nice joy de vivre track. Rain is nice, but Lion just feels better.
Puzzle is standard and Juuni Genmukyouku isn’t. Juuni Genmukyouku works hard to create a specific atmosphere, and succeeds at what it tries to do, so it wins for me.

Note: he did say this version. In my opinion the acoustic guitar version fits the song better. This version is like trying to be a dance or trance song with the beat and the synths but is too slow to really be either. I also think the piano is a little at odds with the synth in this version. To me the 2.0 version just has a more raw sound that conveys more emotion this feels relatively flat by comparison.

Exactly. I listened to the 2.0 version first and found this version inferior in every way. It just sounds like a dance-oriented “club remix” of what I thought was actually quite a good song. I’m also somewhat of a hipster and abhor most of that kind of music (not EDM in general, but club-oriented psuedo-EDM that this track exemplifies), but I know zakufan does not, hence the tongue-in-cheek jab.

Yeah see what you guys mean about the comparison. I prefer the more natural sound of the acoustic mix too, although something that puts me off about the 2.0 version is there’s some instrument in it that sounds like a bad midi sample.

Voted Fly as those beats and the rhythm of the rap were pretty dope. It’s cheeky, fun, and encapsulated what the anime was all about for me. I didn’t like this version of Secret Base. Sadly, I automatically compare it to the Zone version so it just pales in comparison. I understand the context of the song in the anime, but it’s just not that great for me.

Beautiful World was a very weak song I thought, sounded over-produced (not in a good way) and really didn’t like the background instrumentals. Like listening to a Eurodance track. Oblivious wins.

Lion was a very strong song, and had many things going for it. Too many sometimes. I get sucked in by gentle ballads and Rain had this Mr Children vibe about it. There’s also this guitar solo at the end that tipped me over. Rain for me.

Puzzle was quite a fly song for Roundtable and that trumpet just adds so much more whimsy to an already cute piece. But Juuni is what it is, a grand, epic, bloody good opening. I remember getting chills the first time I heard it, and when the Pirates of the Caribbean-esque bit came in at the end, started smiling like the dope I was. Juuni definitely.

While the J-rap of Fly is fun in its own right, secret base wins out. There’s large sentimental and contextual value in it for me that’s hard to beat.

oblivious wins hands down. The Kajiura+Kalafina duo is great at crafting songs that have a defined direction, almost as if they’re telling a story, and oblivious is no exception here. Not a huge fan of the “blockbuster”-style of Beautiful World personally.

Lion of Rain. Not a fan of either tbh, but still.

I’d have enjoyed Puzzle more if the trumpet didn’t sound so subdued. Yeah I guess it fits the song a bit, but I’m a brass man through-and-through. Gimme some of that vigor and don’t sound so mechanically stringent. Juuni Genmukyouku on the other hand is an intense, magnificent opener and it makes me want to revisit the anime as I’ve only seen the first episode ages ago.

Don’t really have a horse in this one. I don’t have any sentimentality toward AnoHana and the OP/ED themes never got me sonically (aside from the Galileo Galilei ED). On the flipside whisper-rap is weird.

Don’t care all that much for either Beautiful World or Oblivious. I suppose I bashed BW 1.0 above but that’s generally in comparison to 2.0. It’s not Horrible but I think Kalafina’s superior vocals and production wins this one. I can’t see either of these advancing very far though.

Lion destroys sleepy easy listening track.

I’m not gonna hate on Twelve Kingdoms but I really don’t think this song fits in the competition. I know it is ALLOWED in the competition but comparing to the majority of the rest of the tracks it is the most “BGM” like and comparing it against a upbeat poppy piece is really difficult. If this were themed like #MALKeionbu it might be easier to compare, but in terms of pure quality it’s almost not really fair for either of them.

The anime version of Secret Base is weaker than Zone’s or Scandal’s version but since the opponent is meh, Secret Base still wins.

Didn’t notice oblivious being in the tournament until now. Neither Beautiful World nor oblivious is Hikki’s and Kalafina’s best work respectively. Now if this was Sakura Nagashi vs Magia, then it would be more interesting. At least, its not the remix version of Beautiful World or oblivious would be the obvious choice.

Lion isn’t the best of Frontier’s songs but Rain is bland and really isn’t memorable .

Puzzle is weak but Juuni Genmu kyouku is more properly a sound track. A sound track does not have to factor in the vocal component and mesh it together, so Puzzle wins it.